Bolivia High Andes Adventure 2012: Santiago Bound

Our flight from Auckland International airport direct to Santiago was 11hrs and 20 minutes arriving in the middle of the night in Chile. We had met one of our fellow travellers on a previous tour to Vietnam the year before, so had a brief introduction with the rest of the crew before we boarded the flight. Waiting for our bags at the baggage carousel only to find they had been transferred through to Bolivia. Tough, no clothes or toiletries for the night.

After our long flight we were transferred to our hotel situated in the heart of Providencia, Santiago Plaza Hotel where we were introduced to pisco sour. Free cocktails on arrival, they were so good we had another. Had time enough to check out this neighbourhood before later meeting up with the rest of the crew for dinner.

front entrance of the Hotel

Went out through a mall and found a supermarket, looks pretty much like any at home, same sort of products and brands but in Spanish

Interesting sculpture at Santiago Airport, maybe its lost luggage.

Our 4.45hr flight to La Paz with one stop along the way at Iquique to get our passports stamped. It is a pretty desolate looking place in the middle of a desert, but quite a lot of people did not return to the plane from here.

Iquique is a port city on the Pacifica Coast and lies west of the Atacama Desert.

Our plane waiting for us to re-board

The views flying to La Paz are amazing

Well we sure felt the altitude and the heat when landing in La Paz, just standing in the queue to get through customs was so tiring, then picking up our bags to leave in storage while we had a short stop over. We were met by Danielle who took us on a little tour down into the city of La Paz for lunch. One reason was to get us to a lower altitude while we waited for our next flight to Cochabamba.

La Paz is built in a canyon created by the Choqueyapu River (now mostly built over), which runs northwest to southeast.
The geography of La Paz (in particular the altitude) reflects society: the lower areas of the city are the more affluent areas. While many middle-class residents live in high-rise condos near the center, the houses of the truly affluent are located in the lower neighborhoods southwest of the Prado. And looking up from the center, the surrounding hills are plastered with makeshift brick houses of those less economically fortunate.
The satellite city of El Alto, in which the airport is located, is spread over a broad area to the west of the canyon, on the Altiplano. La Paz is renowned for its unique markets, very unusual topography, and traditional culture.